The U’s will once again be without Jabo Ibehre, Liam O’Neil, Reggie Lambe and David Forde for their trip to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium, with all four also missing last week's match against Exeter.

Their progress has been further hampered by the inclement weather, which has limited the squad’s time on the grass at Clare College Sports Ground.

“Jabo, David Forde and Liam O’Neil haven’t been out enough,” the U’s head coach said.

“Reggie Lambe has started to train, so he’ll be a little bit further forward, but hampered by the fact that we haven’t been able to train properly and the way we wanted to on Thursday and Friday.”

Forde’s prolonged injury means that Dimi Mitov is set to start his third game in a row, and Calderwood said it’s important that the keeper continues to push the former Republic of Ireland international.

"He looks a capable goalkeeper, so he’ll be ready for the weekend,” he said.

“It’s nice to have a section of games and you get a real feel for him and he feels like he’s getting his chance so this is a moment everyone has got to grab at a little bit.

“We need the competition and we need him to be pushing David Forde as hard as possible.”

Ibehre’s absence was perhaps felt the most down at St James Park last weekend, yet, while acknowledging that they did miss his hold up play, Calderwood said his side simply have to perform better, with or without the striker.

“He’s [Ibehre] arguably one of the best in this league [at holding the ball up] and the next one up as well,” he said.

“You’ll miss that to begin with, but the rest of it is down to the players that played.

“My disappointment after the game was that they didn’t get any near the levels that they know they can and I know they can and they showed in training.”

Alex Jones’ fitness situation was also another topic of conversation after the loanee’s brief appearance last weekend.

Again, the elements have dictated how much he has been able to train, and Calderwood believes that playing in games will help build up his fitness.

“It’s probably as annoying as anything this week that he hasn’t been able to train with the group,” he said.

“He did extra work on the Monday. We just need involvement and, if it looks like it’s going to be a bit like the Christmas period, that will come in games rather than training sessions.

“If it’s not now it’ll be next week or the week after that and we’ll benefit from his style of play, definitely.”

Ade Azeez also won't be available after completing a move to Newport County on deadline day, while Hayden Coulson and Jake Doyle-Hayes are expected to go straight into the squad.